One Winnipeg driver has been slapped with a nearly $240 ticket for driving with an 'unsecured load' of snow on the roof of his van. Jonathan McCullough said it took him a moment before he realised that a police officer was trying to stop him as he drove through town. "When I rolled down my window he asked me why did I have so much snow on my roof, and I didn't know what to say," McCullough said. "I was completely dumbfounded by his question."

McCullough acknowledged that he had seven to ten centimetres of snow on the roof of his minivan. What he didn't expect was to get an infringement ticket of $237.50 for driving a vehicle with an unsecured load. He added that he knows about the law against driving with unsecured loads on a vehicle, but he didn't know the law applied to snow, too. He says he never made the connection between snow and it being a load.

Now he's posted about the whole event on his social media page to warn other drivers to be sure to clean off their vehicles so they won't be fined too.

Further east in Ottawa, policeman Phil Kane of the Ottawa Police Department says the snow and ice buildup that drivers forget to brush off can pose a deadly hazard to other road users. It only takes a few minutes, admittedly out in the cold, but many Canadian drivers take their cars out without brushing off the snow and ice from the outside of their cars. In Ottawa the crime carries a $110 fine.

"In 90 minutes I pulled 63 cars over for not clearing the snow off," said officer Kane. He noted that the freezing weather that brought the ice and snow in the first place also deterred drivers from taking a minute to brush off their vehicles. "Some of the drivers obviously thought it was too cold to get out, or too snowy," he said. While Kane decided to just give cautions to the drivers he pulled over, he warned motorists to expect fines in the future if they don't learn their lesson.